If "best platform" also includes forum software, then something like SMF or phpBB would be nice.

A working converter exist for YaBB2.2 --> SMF

If the search function (hint hint) worked any better (more than just 25 results...), I could give you some posts where this was discussed before.

A quote button and a more 'obvious' link to the 'user menu' would be nice too.

• Upload doesn't work? Do a loop-back test.• There's absolutely NO excuse for not having an ISP!• Your AVR needs a brain surgery? Use the online FUSE calculator.• My projects: RGB LED matrix, RGB LED ring, various ATtiny gadgets...• Microsoft is not the answer. It is the question, and the answer is NO!

i think features are everywhere the same today (well, except here of course). The thing with PHPBB3 is that i persoanally was totally disappointed with it. It was just a bloated phpbb2 and had the same problems as the predecessor (size, speed..). SMF on the other hand has an excellent 'plugin' system for features. Simply upload a package and youre done, no longer 'hacking' your sys and one of the major advantages of SMF is the speed and it's small footprint which is especially at a forum like this quite important.

Believe me, Mike, I calculated the odds of this succeeding against the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid[ch8230] and I went ahead

Dang kids and their web 2.0 bling. All web forums are a vastly inferior copy of things like email lists and newsgroups (NNTP) that have been around for years and years.

Seriously, an email list with a searchable web archive is infinitely more useful than a forum, especially if you happen to be interested in more than one thing. This is the only forum I actually post on, or even visit. With email all the information I'm interested funnels to me, my email tools sort the messages so I can view at my own priority, moderated email lists cut down hugely on spam, etc. Oh, and it's not a pig of a service that requires major data center hosting. Moderated NNTP groups are even better for this sort of thing.

everyone is on here, there's nobody hiding away posting things from a hole, they are physically online.

samantics. there's no difference in the "presence" aspect, IMO. you've got to be online somewhere to originate an NNTP post or email message.

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With a forum like this, it is also going into cloud computing,

That statement assumes that cloud computing is a good thing; I happen to disagree. Strongly.

For instance, if my email service provider goes away, i've at least got my archived email on my computer, directly under my physical control. If this forum server goes away, this body of knowledge is gone. This is not a hypothetical situation - what was the cell phone service who lost all user data not too long ago?

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accessible from anywhere with any hardware, from anyone's computer

ever heard of webmail?

I'm not arguing for dismantling the forum in favor of an email list; I'm just saying, there are existing solutions that I feel are better, even if they're not new or buzzword-laden.

kg4wsv: I had a long discussion with the PureData community back in 2006 during the classic meeting in Bergen, NO. The email list has been there for quite some time, but it is not that inviting for non-expert users. In the end, we both know it is the same technology driving the engine, but the user experience is different. In a way, if we had a good RSS from the forum, I think your needs could be fulfilled in a similar fashion, don't you think? Email clients support adding RSS feeds, personally I follow more or less everything from Thunderbird.

The rest: when it comes to which is the best forum platform, dudes ... this is the worst decision of my life -so far. Could we collect in this thread all the links within the forum about the things that have been discussed so far. I can even install the different flavors and make migration tests and report back to everyone.

I wasn't really suggesting that we switch from forum to email (or trying to hijack the thread), but I did hope to incite some discussion that may help me understand why the current generation of users prefer a scattering of forums to more mature solutions.

You're right, a good RSS feed mechanism would improve my "user experience", although I may need to find a better tool than google reader for this type of feed.

I may need to find a better tool than google reader for this type of feed.

Like David C, I find Thunderbird a very useful RSS processor. Even if you don't use it for E-mail, you can use it to monitor your feeds and have Thunderbird's filters and message rules organize topics into folders with highlighting and lots of other useful features for you.

There are probably lots of other open source RSS readers out there that would benefit from a better RSS feed from arduino.cc.